Philip Rucker

‘I Alone Can Fix It’ book excerpt: The inside story of Trump’s defiance and inaction on Jan. 6

At the end of a tumultuous day, the defiant president refused to accept the signs that he was losing the White House contest to Joe Biden.

The same pathologies that abetted President Trump’s political rise, animated his followers and became hallmarks of his turbulent single term have now, in the twilight of his presidency, left him politically damaged.

Allies are at work to establish a Trump fiefdom in the battleground state aimed at maintaining his influence over Republican politics.

The departing president also warned that impeaching him a second time could lead to more violence.

In the wake of the mob attack on the Capitol that he incited, Trump is now destined to slink out of the White House diminished and increasingly isolated.

Trump’s assault on American democracy over the past two months, culminating with Wednesday’s attack at the Capitol, has left him as isolated as he ever has been in his four years as president.

The pandemonium would seem to be a natural culmination of what Trump and compliant Republicans have wrought on the nation they swore an oath to protect.

Eleven GOP senators pledged to reject Biden’s electoral votes from swing states, defying a plea from Senate leaders to avoid a fight over the election’s legitimacy when Congress meets in a joint session next week.

He claimed without evidence that the nation’s election system was “under coordinated assault and siege” and that it was “statistically impossible” for him to have lost to President-elect Joe Biden.